Colin Powell Warned Hillary Clinton to Be 'Very Careful' About Using Personal Email for Business

— -- Former secretary of state Colin Powell told Hillary Clinton to be "very careful" about using her personal email account for official government business, according to notes the FBI released from their interview with Clinton.

The FBI notes state that Clinton contacted Powell on January 23, 2009 via email to ask about his use of a BlackBerry while he was secretary of state. Powell, according to the FBI notes, replied by warning Clinton that "if it became 'public' that Clinton had a Blackberry and she used it to 'do business,' her e-mails could become 'official record[s] and subject to the law.'"

"Be very careful. I got around it all by not saying much and not using systems that capture the data," Powell advised.

The FBI notes state Clinton's decision to use a private email address was not affected by her conversation with Powell.

For months, Clinton’s campaign has pointed to Powell to defend their candidates’ use of a personal email at the State Department, saying he used a personal account as well.

Last month, the New York Times reported that Clinton told the FBI that Powell had advised her to use a personal email account. The substance of their exchange on the topic, however, has only been made public today with the release of the FBI notes.

When Powell was asked by People magazine recently about Clinton citing him as an example, he quipped back, "Her people have been trying to pin it on me."

"The truth is, she was using [the private email server] for a year before I sent her a memo telling her what I did," he added.

According to the FBI notes, Powell emailed Clinton at the start of her tenure as Secretary of State in 2009, not a year later, as Powell stated.

Clinton has since taken full responsibility for her use of personal email and a private email server, which Powell did not have.

"I appreciated the time he took when I was preparing to become Secretary, and I valued his advice. I'm not going to litigate in public my private conversations with him," Clinton said about Powell in an interview with CNN.

"I've been asked many, many questions in the past year about emails, and what I've learned is that when I try to explain what happened it can sound like I'm trying to excuse what I did and there are no excuses," she said.

"I want people to know that the decision to have a single email account was mine. I take responsibility for it. I've apologized for it," she continued. "I would certainly do differently if I could but obviously I'm grateful the Justice Department concluded there was no basis to pursue this matter further. And I believe the public will be, and is, considering my full record and experience as they consider their choice for president.”